If you rewind the calendar to two years ago, you would have seen a very different MSI from the company we encountered at CES 2011. At CES 2009, MSIís North American operations were in shambles and their presence at the show was minimal with very few new products on display. Now, things are rolling with brand new marketing and PC product development teams. Not only did MSI show off a number of new and upcoming products at highly competitive price points but they also flexed their motherboardsí overclocking muscle with an overclocking event dubbed MOA. For the time being at least, this is one company we expect some great things from in 2011.

Big Bang Conqueror; Ready for AM3+ and Bulldozer

There really has been quite a bit of talk about AMDís upcoming AM3+ CPUs which include products sporting their new Bulldozer architecture and MSI has a board ready. Itís called the Big Bang Conqueror and is meant to go head to head against the likes of ASUSí Crosshair ROG series in terms of overclocking capability and features.

Since AM3+ boards are backwards compatible with AM3 CPUs, MSI is looking to launch the Conqueror far in advance of Bulldozerís official availability. It has all of the features one would expect of an enthusiast-grade board including an onboard POST LED, easily accessible Power and Reset buttons and multi GPU support through the use of a Lucid Hydra chip.

Pricing isnít set but we donít expect the Conqueror to retail for more than $275 USD.

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The King of P67 boards: Big Bang Marshall

In our preview of MSIís P67 motherboard lineup, we caught a glimpse of the Big Bang Marshall and the specifications looked impressive to say the least. Seeing this beast in person was another matter altogether. It is an absolutely massive board with a laundry list of features like eight PCI-E x16 slots, up to eight USB 3.0 connectors, dip switches to control the PCI-E lane configuration, voltage read points and a button to switch between multiple BIOS files. Naturally, it also sports MSIís new Military Class II design which includes Tantalum-cored Hi-C capacitors and SFC chokes.

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